With less than a month left of scheduled sessions at the local library, the middle-school-aged gaming group for whom I’ve been running a Dungeons & Dragons game got to talk about the ambiguously (neo-) medievalist setting of the game, both in its default iteration and in the specifics of the campaign I think may be winding down. (I hope to reprise later on, but since it is a library program and not my own, I cannot guarantee it.) There are a number of scholars and others who have commented on the topic at some length, and I’m not exactly a stranger to the discussion, myself (as witness this, among others). I’ll admit to some pleasure in speaking from a position of some knowledge on the subject, and I’ll note that I did have to rein myself in; having been an academic and still participating in some small ways in scholarly research, I am prone to running off at the mouth about things I’ve studied. But that should be nothing like a surprise to anybody who knows or reads me at this point.

As to play, itself: the players continued to progress through the dungeon in which they have been for several sessions, now. An NPC “handler” emphatically suggested that, following the events of last week’s session, the party take a long rest. So much done, and players’ characters restored to reasonable health, the party pressed ahead, moving from large halls into narrow corridors that presented traditional-to-the-genre threats partly determined by random chance. Intra-party conflict was present as it always is, but there was also humor (if perhaps more attempted than realized). Really, the kids are a pretty typical gaming group, and, for the most part (aside from cases of main-character syndrome in various intensities and the overwhelming desire of one player, in particular, to be “cool”), it’s been good to have them at the table. I’ve been glad to have the opportunity, and I think I will miss it when it’s done.

But it’s not done yet, not hardly, and I mean to get out of it all that I can while I can.

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